Plan? What Plan?
by Nicky Gabriel
Summary: Just what the title says.


This is a story written for **Neaslon**.

**Rating:** T for violence (and something else what certain readers can find disturbing)

**Warnings:** in English, please forgive me my incompetence. Thank you **Laura McEwan** for your invaluable help! You are a real treasure :) Any mistakes here are mine.

* ~ *

Hutch was sure of two things that evening. First – there was no way he could escape from that cellar being cuffed to a pipe which held to the wall in the corner a little bit too firmly for his liking, and to make it worse, Carter took the key for the handcuffs as well as his wallet and the gun. And second – his partner had apparently lost his mind.

Okay, so Starsky could be putting on some act for their captors' benefit, but Hutch – for the life of him – could not figure out what purpose it would serve. Usually he could read Starsky pretty well; mostly they did not even need to look at each other. But what his partner was trying to achieve by provoking this murderer was beyond him.

Hutch was aware that after the thieves got what they wanted from them – Starsky's cooperation and help in leaving the city while they kept Hutch as an insurance policy -- they would eventually kill them both. There was nothing Hutch could do to prevent it, considering his situation.

And Starsky – now on his knees in front of these thugs, pressing both hands to his stomach and barely breathing because of the pain caused by the padded butt of the rifle – was looking at Hutch the way he had never done before. All that Hutch could see now was Starsky's facial expression, which was confirming not only his partner's previous remarks about Carter's rather doubtful ancestors' past, but also what kind of relationship he "presumably" had with Hutch.

From the very beginning Carter had not hesitated to let them know what he was thinking about their "partnership" and Starsky, uncharacteristically for him, did not even try to fight it – which was his usual response in similar situations. On the contrary, Starsky was doing everything to encourage Carter in his conviction that he and Hutch were lovers.

And as it was all the same to Hutch what that creep was thinking, he would prefer to know Starsky's plan. If he _had_ one.

Carter leaned over Starsky, pulling at his hair and whispering angrily, "You better behave, or something like that will happen to _him_," he said, pointing at Hutch.

Starsky fixed his eyes on Carter and said coldly through gritted teeth, "You touch 'im and you're a dead man." Only Hutch could hear the real concern in his partner's voice.

"Oh, but you would like to touch him, wouldn't you?" Carter said, smirking with some kind of disgusted fascination.

Starsky said nothing, but Carter seemed to have come up with an idea. He put Starsky brutally back on his feet and pushed him toward Hutch.

"Okay, pig," Carter added, raising a gun. "Kiss him goodbye and we leave. If you are a good boy, you'll see him first thing in the morning."

Hutch could not deny the flash of victory in Starsky's eyes. It lasted for less than a heartbeat but Hutch was now sure that this was exactly what Starsky had wanted Carter to do.

"And I want to see your hands," Carter added.

Hutch could see Carter watching them with some sick pleasure, holding his gun as if he just wanted Starsky to make one wrong move, despite needing them alive. But Starsky held his hands to either side as he came closer. Hutch watched as he approached, still trying to fully understand Starsky's plan. If Starsky wanted to kiss him, so be it, but Hutch would really like to know how it was going to help them out.

Standing so close – for the first time from the moment this whole mess began – Hutch could see the plea in Starsky's eyes for his friend to just follow his lead. To trust him as always. What else could he do, after all? If Hutch could act like a drug dealer undercover, he certainly could pretend to be a Starsky's lover, as well.

When Starsky put his hands on the wall on either side of Hutch, and their lips met, Hutch could only hope that it was not a real "kiss goodbye". As if in answer to his prayers, Hutch felt something invading his mouth and when he realized what it was he did everything in his power to make their kiss look as real as possible.

It definitely was not Oscar-winning performance, but Carter seemed pleased.

"See you, partner," was all what Starsky said before they pulled him away. Hutch watched them leave the cellar, all his attention focused on Starsky, who now seemed as if he suddenly had no worries in the world.

Only after he was left alone in the room did Hutch pull out of his mouth the key to his handcuffs. Starsky has just saved his life. It was high time Hutch repaid him.


End file.
